The Last Lieutenant

Astronomy Tower (Pt 2)

Someone is screaming.

Audra hears the sound like it is coming from far away, blocked by the roaring in her ears, and it takes her a moment to realize that the sound (not even a scream, really, just a sort of wailing) is being ripped from her own mouth. She can't think of why she is screaming, only that Dumbledore cannot be dead, but when she leans over the edge of the Astronomy tower to check, he is still there, crumpled up at the bottom, which is how she knows that he's gone. Dumbledore would never make them stand alone when he could stop it.

"Audra. Audra." Emmeline is shaking her, yanking on her robes and pulling her back, and Audra cannot believe that she was the same girl who was so weak she could barely stand only twelve hours before, because now she has enough strength to tear the whole castle down. "Audra, now is not the time."

It wasn't supposed to be like this, she thinks, and her mind is still not working, can't figure it out, the plea and then that flash of green and then his body flying into the air, all those hours spent to stop the spread of the infection gone in just one second, and they were close, so close, to being able to save him, but it didn't matter, everything they had done and risked and sacrificed reduced to nothing, all because Dumbledore believed in second chances, because he was trusting, because he was a fool.

Emmeline is still shaking her, still talking to her, still trying to pull her back down to the fight. But Audra was done with fighting.

"No." Her mind is clearer than it had been in months, and Audra whips around, shoving Emmeline back so hard that she stumbles. "Walk away."

"Audra," She was still trying to get her to come with her. Emmeline was listening but wasn't understanding, just like Vance never understood what she had been trying to show him. "Audra, please come with me."

"Walk away." Audra points her wand at her and Emmeline just stares. She doesn't make a move to fight her. They had proved before that Audra would always win. "Leave, and don't come near me, or I'll kill you. Do you understand?"

"Audra-,"

She reaches out and Audra sends a stinging jinx at her outstretched hand. Emmeline yanks back, barely able to keep hold of her wand. "I'm not one of you. But you knew that. I was just pretending." Audra brushes past her, back towards the screams and the flashing light and more of her friends that might be dead, and Emmeline doesn't try and follow. "But I'm done."

When Audra makes it to the corridor where all the noise was coming from, she splits the fight in half.

No one moves to curse her, because no one knows what side she is on, so for a moment, Audra just stands there, watching. The Order was hopelessly outmatched. Not because they were bad at fighting, but because they insisted on being honorable. They, just like the DA, hadn't been taught to fight, only how to defend, and no matter what Hermione thinks, there's a difference. To really be able to win you had to be willing to hurt.

And suddenly, Audra had no problem with that.

She starts with Greyback, just a sweep of the arm sending him flying through the air, away from a shocked Hermione and Ginny. He had backed them into the corner, ready to do to them what he had done to Bill and so many countless others, and now he was just curled up on the floor, whimpering, making a sound like an injured dog, and when he sees her coming, he just crawls away.

Audra doesn't go after him, even though every inch of her was screaming at her to end it, but she doesn't, because she is playing by Dumbledore's rules again. That means letting them live. It means holding back. But it didn't really matter, because there are so many other people to fight against.